1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to industrial equipment and, more particularly, to a weighbelt feeder apparatus, such as a weighbelt feeder for use in industrial process control.
2. Description of the Related Art
Weighbelt feeders are used, especially in production flow lines, for continuous measurement of the throughput quantity or mass flow rate of a material being transported. Normally, a weighbelt feeder apparatus is placed in a flow or feed line and comprises a conveyor belt for carrying the material to be transported. The mass flow rate of the material is determined by measuring the mass of material on the belt at a particular instance in time and the speed of the belt. Flow control is obtained by either varying the flow speed of the material or the thickness of the layer of material transported over the weighbelt feeder.
Typically, in a weighbelt feeder apparatus, the conveyor belt moves along metallic side rails which also support mechanical components, such as the pulleys, bearings, shafts and ends of idlers upon which the belt moves. The mechanical load on the side rails is supported by steel frames, each including a horizontal cross-member upon which the rails are supported. In certain conventional current designs, the cross-members of the support frames are cantilevered to facilitate removal and replacement of seamless conveyor belts, while also supporting the middle area and mechanical components between the belt strands. However, in such conventional designs, a significant amount of time is still used to remove/replace the belt, which requires almost a complete disassembly of the top half of the apparatus to remove the skirt boards, cover panels and support posts.
In addition, weighbelt feeders are currently designed with steel frames constructed using standard sized steel sections, such as C-channel, square, round or rectangular hollow sections. Manufacturing the apparatus in such a case involves creating small welded assemblies that are bolted together to create the support frame. Here, there is a significant amount of time required to fabricate these small weldments and bolt them together for final assembly. Further, since such conventional designs use standard sections in common metric or imperial sizes, the availability of these components is dependent on the regional area of production. As a result, it is difficult to create a configurable global solution of the product. Further disadvantageously, it is also more difficult to configure a three-dimensional model of all the combinations and perform structural analyses efficiently in an effort to optimize the design of a support frame having such sections.